Why I quit the 365 (Photo) Project

The 365 Project is a challenge to take a photo each day for a year straight. Right before 2011, my friend, Liz, asked me to do it with her. I agreed, knowing I was headed to Korea. I figured it would be a good way to share pictures from the new country.

Well, as of today, I officially quit the project. Here’s why:

I missed some days back in April. That took a lot of steam out of the project. It’s not really a 365 Project if it doesn’t have 365 pictures. I didn’t know what to do: leave holes or cheat by filling them in with pictures from other days. Not cool.

It kept me from posting more pictures. See, I had a backlog of pictures to post to bring the project up to date. Instead of feeling free to post pictures whenever I wanted, I always felt I needed to be working to get the project up to date.

I felt more excited about quitting than continuing. I asked myself, “Which is more exciting, quitting or continuing?” And for the first time, quitting sounded funner.

I realized I was continuing just for bragging rights, not because I enjoyed the process or was that enthusiastic about the results.